


May the Force be with You!

by Bacner



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ahch-To, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coruscant (Star Wars), F/M, First Order, Gen, Hutts, Jedi and Sith, May the Force Be With You, Resistance, Some Humor, War and Peace, old friendships die hard, some drama, tattooine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:47:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24136858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bacner/pseuds/Bacner
Summary: Post-trilogy. Poe Dameron is looking for the Resistance's one and only Jedi on Ahch-To. Unfortunately, he finds the wrong one there.
Relationships: Poe Dameron & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron/Jannah (mentioned)
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: all characters belong to Lucasfilm™ and Disney™.

…Poe Dameron had never been to Ahch-To, whether or not it was the final resting place of Sir Luke Skywalker, who was the brother of General Organa, and as such – a very important part of the Resistance, (part time). Rey had been there, once, to train under Sir Luke, but right now and here, with the latter Jedi being dead, (apparently, though it was different with the Jedi, sometimes), Rey wasn’t here anymore either. She had gone to other parts of the galaxy, it seemed. 

That is not to say that Ahch-To was abandoned either, even with Sir Luke dead, and Rey absent. In fact, there was a Force user there, one that was very familiar to Poe, and right now? The two men were eyeing each other in an unfriendly way.

“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” Poe bitterly asked Ben Solo, (at least, he supposed that it was Ben Solo. Kylo Ren had a decidedly different style to him).

“Yes, I am. I died, but since I was making plans about that beforehand, I came back,” Ben shrugged.

“…You made plans to die and come back,” Poe said slowly as his hand stopped halfway to his blaster. Somehow, he was not so sure that shooting Ben Solo would accomplish anything any-more. What if he comes back again-?

“Yes, I did plans, and no, if I died again, it would take me far longer, if ever, to come back, so please don’t shoot me,” Ben sighed as he looked at his childhood friend. “Why are you here? Where is Rey? Isn’t she the Jedi?”

Poe blinked as he belatedly remembered that even before he went full Sith, Ben Solo was never particularly easy to get along with, and now that he went full Sith and back again, he was even harder. 

“…She’s gone,” he focused on the important part, with an effort. “She’s gone, and we thought that she might come back here…”

“Good for her,” Ben did not even appear to be gloating, which only made everything worse. “Now that Palpatine is gone for real, it’s time for the Republic to begin to return to what it initially was.”

“What are you talking about-?” Poe sputtered.

“Before Palpatine took over and started the Clone wars,” Ben did not back down, “the Jedi were many things, from investigators to negotiators and more. Never generals and army leaders – that was Palpatine’s manipulations. Now that he’s gone, it’s time for things to return to normal.”

Poe opened his mouth.

“What did you do to make her leave – made it easier for her to leave?” Ben asked in his turn.

“Jannah,” Poe muttered sheepishly – some habits were hard to break, especially when the patterns never had been.

“Don’t know her,” Ben nodded sagely.

“She’s a former trooper of the First Order who helped us against you-“

“I’ve met him. His name is Finn. He is also a man, and identified himself as one. Dameron, what did you do-?”

“Nothing! It’s a different Stormtrooper!” Poe sputtered. “There was more than just one when your First Order began to go-!”

“Good,” Ben nodded, apparently agreeing wholeheartedly with Poe, (which only made the other man more aggravated). “Palpatine never cared about anyone other than himself and Snoke was just a hollow shell in which he hid-“

“Oh, now you’re all knowing-“

“Yes, well, I should’ve figured out how to tell you earlier, even if you would only make a bad situation worse,” Ben, apparently, had also remembered their childhood friendship in a less than rosy light. “Rey fixed it, instead – and yes, she’s a wonderful glorious woman, and now that she’s gone-“

“She isn’t gone-“

“She is gone from the Resistance-“

“I give you that,” Poe muttered sheepishly. “Did you have to hand the rump First Order to Finn and Rose?”

“Hey, I had Snoke’s bloodline checked – he really was the Tico sisters’ maternal grandfather,” Ben shrugged. “Might as well give his legacy to the rightful heir, now that both he and Palpatine are gone.”

Poe looked at him, or rather – glared at him. Ben stared back at him with a placid gaze that was more Skywalker than Solo and the one that Luke actually used to annoy Han back when the pair were friends with each other, (and also alive). 

“…Anyways, again, Rey isn’t here, so you can go,” Ben shrugged. “It was nice to meet you, again, really. Maybe we’ll try it next month, or better yet – next year?”

“…I think that you should come with me back to the Resistance instead,” Poe said slowly as he pointedly kept his arms ahead from the blaster. “And not for the reasons that you think-“

“Why do you need Jedi, anyhow?” Ben did not appear to be too impressed by Poe’s show of peace. “You have all the tools. You have the Resistance behind you. You have the remainder of the First Order with you. The galaxy is already at the beginning of a period of peace. All you need to do is to usher it in. What’s the problem?”

“We don’t know how,” Poe sighed… even as he eyed Ben critically. “Let me guess. You wanted to make it like your uncle and split?”

“I’m a different person from my uncle,” and boy, was not the last word loaded with vitriol – clearly, some things still got under Ben’s skin, no matter what, “but I just assumed that between all of you, you all would be able to succeed where my mother and her cohorts failed. I guess I was wrong. What did you need Rey for? Or me, for that matter?”

Poe looked away first this time. “We’re not sure. It’s just that- it’s just that we thought that having a Jedi might help with all of those fat cats and other douches of Coruscant-“

“Ah,” Ben nodded in understanding, as he had spent the initial part of his childhood and life on Coruscant, and had hated it. “I think that I’m beginning to understand.” He looked up into the sky and beyond into space. “Maybe I should go with you. In addition, for all sorts of reasons, I think that I might now where Rey is. Shall we go and collect her on the way to Coruscant?”

“I like the way you think, old buddy!” Poe said brightly as he clapped Ben on the shoulder. 

Ben glared.

“Just like old times,” Poe continued happily. “Shall we go now?”

“Yes,” Ben said curtly, and away they went.

End


	2. Chapter 2

Rey was not having fun.

Having fun, Rey was not.

Instead, she was on Tattooine, being captured by what had to be the galaxy's brawniest Hutt, who was observing her in a manner that was just too scientific to be good. She was subdued, tied up and attached to some crazy contraction that had to be built for torture purposes only, and BB8 was missing, to add insult to injury. Normally, Rey wouldn't be having any of it, but after being punched in the head by the aforementioned Hutt, she still wasn't feeling up to her usual 110%, and she wasn't entirely sure just what could she do against a Hutt - master Skywalker's notes were surprisingly precise on this matter, and one of those notes was 'Hutts are highly resilient to the Jedi mind tricks - don't use outside of a last resort', and Rey wasn't sure if this was or wasn't a last resort situation. Maybe if BB8 contacted her...

The Hutt's equivalent of the doorbell rang. "Now who could that be?" the Hutt - whose name was Grachus, apparently - stopped musing as to which way to preserve Rey alive would be the most torturous for her, and opened what was his front door. "Mara Jade. The only reason why I don't turn you out alongside your extended family is because my former Gamemaster is with you. Ben, my boy, it is so nice to see you! Are you here to ask for your old job back?"

"Good to see you too, Grachus," Ben Solo's - or was it Kylo Ren's, Rey wasn't in the best mental shape to figure it out - voice was dry, almost acidic. "I see that you have met the new Empress already...and what are you doing to her?" his voice changed to outright incredulousness in matter of a sentence.

"The Empress? I say! This I got to doublecheck!" the Hutt - Grachus - didn't sound too convinced by Ben's artistic skills, as he checked out Rey's DNA, which he did, and it checked out, because of course it did. 

"...Kriff. She really is the old Emperor's granddaughter, isn't she?" the Hutt muttered a brief while later as he quickly unstrapped Rey from his wheel of pain (or whatever it was), and was hosting everyone with Tattooine's version of tea. 'Everyone' here involved Rey, Ben, Poe, the Hutt himself, and also Armitage Hux, who had some more redheads that Rey had never met before with him. BB8 was also there, zooming all over the place - here, there, and everywhere - and clearly enjoying itself now that danger to Rey had passed.

"Yes I am," Rey muttered, as now was so not the time to argue it. "I am, and I am here, and I remember hearing something about a charter? That was given to you," she added, while glaring at the Hutt. (The old Palpatine would've called the glare a good job but in need of plenty of improvement, but he wasn't here right now, so Rey's glare remained uncommented upon). 

"Why, so it was," the Hutt said cheerfully. "A charter given to me by his grandfather," he pointed at Ben, "written by yours," he pointed back at Rey. "A charter that made me the Empire's official keeper of the Republic's Jedi-related relics!" He made a grand sweep gesture. Rey - and the others - instinctively looked around and were clearly awed - despite their intentions - by all the amount of Jedi- and Force- and Republic-related things that were owned by Grachus and managed by his droids.

"...I thought that the Hutts preferred live minions?" Rey muttered to no one in particular as she remembered more of master Luke's notes.

"I am an atypical Hutt!" Grachus said proudly. "Yes, I am obsenely wealthy! Yes, I am morally corrupt by human standards, and yes, I own a vast network of minions, subjects, and proxies that aim to make me ever wealthier, but I am also a Jedi slash Sith enthusiast, and I prefer to spend my monies on the Force- and Republic- related memorabilia, momentos and artefacts! Why, your grandfather himself appointed me the Empire's official keeper of it all!"

"And have you been keeping up?" Rey asked, sounding sharper than how she intended, (and more Palpatine-like than how she would've liked to). 

"Gamemaster," the Hutt said smoothly.

Before replying, Ben shifted and looked at one of the redhead's that wasn't Hux right in the eye for several minutes. "Yes," he said finally, with some reluctance. "Grachus had. He had, because he wanted to, and not for some other reasons, but he had."

"Gamemaster, you wound me, you really do!" the Hutt pushed his arms against his chest, (though since Hutts were more closely related to mollusks than to the vertebrates, this gesture was more symbolic than anything else). "But, your Majesty," he shifted his attention back to Rey, "I got a question of my own - if you're in charge, then why is the First Order still around?"

"Because they're the good ones," Hux spoke up suddenly, startling everyone. 

Grachus, clearly unhappy, began to shift. Hux scooted back, but didn't back down.

"Don't give me that, my lord!" he said firmly. "I mean, look at the Resistance, look at Dameron over there. The First Order is simply better by merit!"

Everyone looked at Poe, who was currently being distracted by the local version of a shiny cat toy, dangled before him by BB8.

"Oh dear," Grachus shook his head, "and this was the best that General Organa had to work with? No wonder that the First Order won by default! That said-"

"Don't," Rey said wearily. "Rose is Snoke's granddaughter, and Finn is being helpful in regards to her and the First Order, so my lord? Let it go!"

"Hm, catchy! Might have to write a song about it," the Hutt mused. "That said, your Majesty, what is the plan here?"

Rey took a deep breath and told him.

_TBC_


End file.
